good morning. thank you for joining us. i'm pam cook. >> i'm dave clark. let's check your traffic. >> we have some low clouds moving in. we will start a little warm up today especially away from the coast. 50s, 60s there. right now on inner state 80 west it looks good. ing good.d problem it's 5:00, let's go back to the desk. we have breaking news this

morning. about ten minutes ago we received news that he's been released from prison. there will are reports that sured been released after more than a year in prison. we are getting word of sarah's release. we will continue to bring you details this morning as soon as they become available. we're also following new developments in last week's deadly explosion and fire if san bruno. federal investigators are taking a closer look at a welds on a curved section of the pipe that blew up. in just a couple of hours the

coroner will update the fatality. also pg&e will spend up to a million dollars to help the fire victims. we have details of a very controversial new idea. >> reporter: it's not clear if this plan will trigger a rate increase to help pay for the cost of the gas line explosion last week. at this point pg&e says it believes most of the fire cost will be covered. today for the first time they will weigh wont their customers will pay for costs incurred by fires that exceed the insurance company's coverage.

the meeting is today and it's the start of a lengthy process. it won't be decided until next spring or summer. a puc commissioner and hearing officer will preside over today's session in san francisco. coming up at the top of the hour we'll have more on who is challenging this new proposal. jade hernandez, ktvu channel 2 news. federal investigators say it could be more than a year to determine what caused that explosion and fire but have uncover what side may be a significant development. inspectors have been taking a close look at the 28-foot section of pipe that shot out of the ground during the explosion.

they say that pipe had a clean break at our near the welds. >> you could see a clean break at the welds. the other end was torn and shredded and much less clean. >> they're also pouring over a mountain of pg&e records. they are trying to see how the pipe was inspected over the years. two new pieces of dramatic video captured the horror of last week's explosion. he heard the loud blast hen he was just getting home. he grabbed his iphone and began shooting this video from the balcony of his home. you can see how close the flames came to his home. he said he only had a few frantic minutes to find his dog

and get out. his home suffered minor damage. the second video is from a gas station surveillance camera just a few blocks away. you can see flames on the left side of your screen. the explosion produced different reaction. some people ran for cover. others immediately headed toward the blast perhaps worried about family members, friends or pets. hundreds of residents in the san bruno neighborhood gathered last night for another town meeting. they filled the pews at the church of highlands just a couple of blocks from the explosion site. they handed in dozens of written questions. most want to now why it took an hour and 46 minutes to shut off the gas line after the explosion. jackie spear who hosted the town hall meeting asked the same question.

>> in this case it was a manual shut off that had to take place. >> pg&e said there was a simple explanation. nay said the huge flames and intense meet made it impossible to get close enough. make sure you stay with us at ktvu morning news. you can also get updates any time by going to our website, ktvu.com. there are concerns that some muni operators could hold a sick-out this morning. we have details of the anonymous flier that's being circulated. good morning, craig. >> reporter: officially there is no sick-out. you can see that most of the buses that are here, all of the buses are here. at this time normally there would be more drivers out here

so perhaps that's an indication of what might be going on later today. there's a flier going around telling operators to call in sick today through the rest of the week. according to the flier which the examiner claims was circulated earlier this month, the sick out is a response to recent changes. flier calls on members of tank port workers of union 250a which represent 2200 operators to call in sick but the union denies it has anything to do with the fliers. earlier this year transit drivers called in sick. the union denied there was a coordinated effort to cripple the commute but at one point during the july 20 dispute nearly all the drivers did call in sick.

drivers took their own actions to protest the changes. coming up going to try to get a copy of that memo. all right. let's go to stall right now and see what's happening in the commute in south san francisco. >> reporter: we have some road work to talk about this morning. it's going to be there for another hour or so. there's a couple of lanes closed for some road work. this morning's commute is okay on northbound 280 getting up to

highway 17. at 5:08 let's say good morning to steve. >> reporter: we have odd fog bank moving locally inland. it doesn't seem to be as much of a push today as yesterday. yesterday watch this right there. the higher clouds came in. that really prevented the low cloudses from burning off sooner. temperatures ran considerably below average. today they will come up a little bit. there's a stronger system there and it's looking more likely for rain by this weekend. 60s at the coast. some upper 70s, low 80s inland. we don't have the higher clouds but it's a typical summertime pattern. overnight lows are cool. sunny, breezy but on the mild side. 52 a little more comfortable chill in the morning air. city's at 54 degrees. 50s here we co. even down to monterey. there goes our little system yesterday. there's a deep one.

it is tapping into some lower latitude moisture. it bears watching as we get toward friday and saturday. today low clouds will peel back to the coast. mild, a little warmer inland. the wind will pick up at times. it's not as strong as yesterday but there's still a westerly wind. upper 70s, low 80s. there's still a west/southwest wind at 24. the sea breeze is still there. we increase the clouds friday. sure looks cloudy to mostly cloudy with possible rain on saturday. >> wow. is house speaker nancy pelosi worried about her job? >> we spend our time and energy on winning. >> what a loss for democrats in november could mean for pelosi's political future. the reason some law enforceable officers say

legalizing pot will reduce crime. your child's school might be airing president obama's back to school speech today. what he plans to tell kids across the country, coming up. when it comes to veterans, no one fights harder than jerry mcnerney. when some vets were forced to travel hours for care, mcnerney fought for a new v.a. medical facility, and won. mcnerney took on washington gridlock, to improve care for vets with traumatic brain injuries.

his plan became law. that's why vfw state commander dave norris endorsed mcnerney. i'm jerry mcnerney, and i'm honored to approve this message. thanks, dad.

welcome back to the morning news. today president obama will give

his second annual back to school address to american students. ktvu's allison burns joins us from our washington, d.c. news room with more on the story. good morning. >> reporter: the white house released there text of the president's speech last night so teachers and others could review it and decide if they are going to show it in classrooms. this speech is less controversial than last year. it started many to have a national keep your charge at home today. some charged he was promoting socialist theories. today in philadelphia the president will try again to pump kids up calling on them to reach for their dreams. he's going to say your life is what you make it and nothing, absolutely nothing is beyond your reach so long as you are willing to dream big. he's also going to say that

excelling in school is not about being smarter than the other kids. it's about working harder. reporting live in washington, d.c., allison burns, ktvu, channel 2 news. with the november election only seven weeks away now some political analysts are speculating about the future of house speaker nancy pelosi if democrats were to lose control of the house of representatives. the current poll show it is possible republicans could win enough seats in november to retake control of the house. publicly she says the democrats are not even talking about that possibility. >> i'm not yielding one grain of sand. i don't even have a conversation based on democrats not winning the house. >> if republicans were to take control of the house in november pelosi would no longer be the speaker of the house. it remains to be seen if she would remain in power as minority leader. jerry brown is now

apologizing for a comment about former president bill clinton. brown was criticizing a campaign ad that megawhitman his opponent is airing. the ad features footage of clinton back in 1992 criticizing brown when the two men were vying for the democratic presidential nomination. in attacking the ad he made a reference to his sex scandal questioning whether he always told the truth. >> bill clinton was an excellent president. he was wrong of me to make a joke about an incident from many, many years ago and i'm sorry for that. >> in that footage from 1992 clinton quotes saying brown raised taxes as governor of california. that's been discovered that cnn report was inaccurate. the brown campaign has called on whitman to stop running the ad but the whitman campaign has refused. a valid measure that legalized marijuana here in

california has the support of oakland's city attorney. >> it's time to acknowledge the truth about the war on marijuana and that is it's a failure and a fantasy. >> city attorney john russo and a group of law enforcement officials say they will help take control of the market away from criminals. in washington federal drug officials join with some religious leaders denouncing prop 19. they say they will push the u.s. attorney general the sue california if that initiative passes in november. i want to go back over to sal to check in on the commute. >> reporter: this morning's commute is off to a nice start. if you look at some of the pictures traffic is moving along pretty well on 280. it's off to a nice start getting up to highway 17 and no major problems pretty much all over the bay. we've had a couple of road work

projects continuing but so far it's light enough that it's not affecting too many people. the road work on the span has been picked up a little early. all the lanes are open on the way into san francisco. this morning we're looking at the east bay. for the most part traffic here in the east bay is looking good. 5:17. here is steve. >> reporter: thank you. a little change yesterday. i know we're into september but it feels like the weather is about three weeks ahead of us. we have these little systems coming in. we already had a couple. we had 60s. it's windy and mostly cloudy. we had warmer weather on the weekend and right now back into this little cooldown. yesterday had a few high mid level clouds. the signs are pointing toward the cloudy and rain weekend. we'll get to that in a second. today we have just the low clouds. i shouldn't say just but they're there. we won't have the higher clouds today so the fog will burn off sooner.

30s up in the mountains. a lot of 50s until you hit southern california. there goes the little system just spinning out. our system that we're taking a look at is right out here. this would be for friday into saturday. we have a couple of days to fine tune things. it does look like clouds will be increasing as we head to friday. some of our forecast models are a little more bowish. still the next couple of days will be a little warmer. we have the night fog. 60s by the coast and some low 80s inland. the west wind still in place. some upper 70s away from the coast.

foreign markets are mixed this morning despite gains on wall street. the dollar briefly dropped to a new 15 year low against the yen. the car makers and technology companies are getting hit by the yen's climb lately prompting selling among exporters. this morning all eyes are on the retailers. the retail report for august comes out and just about ten minutes from you analyst expect a slight gain. we'll watch the numbers as you can see the end of the day yesterday. some gains and dow jones start at 10,544.

the latest figures show the unemployment rate among working age veterans has reached as high as 21%. there's help on the way in the bay area. swords to plow shares. a local veterans agency is hosting the third annual veteran's career fair today. it's free. it's open to any veteran who would like to learn more about training programs and job opportunities here in the bay area. this fair is today from 10 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon at san francisco's war memorial avenue. coming up, find out what's behind the downwards trend. what investigators discover inside a motel room that may have put people's money and identities at risk. good morning. southbound 680 traffic is moving along very well heading to the south bay.

we do have some lanes closed on highway 101. we'll tell you what that's about, straight ahead.

a new report from the fbi shows the nation crime rate dropped 5% last year continuing a 20 year friend.

last year the murder rate was about 5 per every 100,000 americans. that's down from nearly 10 for every 100,000 in 1991. other violent crimes including rape, robberies and assault are also down by more than a third. better policing is getting credit with improving the neighbors. investigators say they have broken up an identity theft ring in the north bay. they say the scheme put hundreds of people finances at risk. investigators showed ktvu some of the $1600 in counterfeit cash that was seized. police busted this three weeks ago degrees a check at a motel. four suspects were caught with all of this equipment to rip off hundreds of unsuspecting people. >> we have printers. we have multiple laptop

computers. >> investigators say they found aliases with the credit card information of more than 200 people. they also say they have recovered stolen mail from mailboxes and a computer that was stolen. human remains discovered in a remote area of yosemita park may be that of fred claassen. park officials are waiting for dna testing to confirm the identity. on the wrong side of the law. a former chp officer heads to court to answer a serious charge. a new clue has emerged as the investigation into the deadly explosion in san bruno

shifts to a new phase. if you're driving in san rafael any time soon it should be a decent drive for you.

welcome back. this is a ktvu channel 2 morning

news tuesday. i'm dave clark. >> i'm pam cook. stephen, what's the weather like today? >> reporter: it will be slightly warmer. fog will burn off sooner. 50s, 60s. a big fog bank continues to hang on by the coast. inland areas will bump up about five to seven degreeses. now sal has an update on your traffic. >> reporter: right now traffic is doing very well in most areas. if you're going to leave the house soon you should have a decent drive to work, but there are some road construction closures. northbound 101 closed for overnight work. it's going to be there until 6. it's 5:30. let's go back to dave and pam. in san francisco today state regulators will take their first look at a controversial proposal from pg&e. this would require the customers to pay all of the costs of fires

that exceeds the utility's insurance coverage. that would include last week's gas line explosion and fire in san bruno. it's still not clear if the plan the make customers pay would require a rate hike. the proposal still has to be approved by the state utility commission. pge and e's network of gas lines stretches 6000 miles around northern california. almost all of those gas lines are underground. pg&e says it will spend as much as $100 million to help rebuild the san bruno neighborhood. tg and e will be spending the next few days working to determine how much money each

household will receive. the first checks are set to go out later this week. >> no strings attached. it's theirs to use in any way shape or form that they want. >> we're living in a hotel and out of a bag. i think they will come through. i think we can get all the neighbors together and make them come through. >> pg&e has already cut the city of san bruno a check for $300 million. funeral services for some of the victims of the fire will be held later this week. students held an emotional mass yesterday. they said prayers for 13-year-old janessa craig and her 44-year-old mother. school staff say she was a bright, well loved 8th grader and was the student body

president. >> jackie and janessa. the family is just torn apart in an instant. >> if family of 20-year-old jessica morales met with pastors yesterday to arrange for her funeral. her boyfriend was badly burned. the fourth victim is believed to be 81-year-old elizabeth torres. her family said she only made it to her front porch. we're going to hear a lot more about the federal government's ntsb investigation. make sure you stay right here with us at ktvu news for the latest developments. you can also get updates at any time by going to our channel 2 website, ktvu.com. a former chp officer accused in a murder for hire plot is scheduled to return to court

this morning. 37-year-old ruben salgado is being held in jail without bail. he also facing several drug related charges. a woman who drowned in discovery bay over the weekend has now been identified. on saturday night 45-year-old virginia myrna was with her husband and friends on a boat. her husband said he went to bed leaving her alone on the boat. the sheriff's office says it appears the group had been drinking but investigators don't know if that contributed to her death. today attorney for the man accused of killing bay area journalist chauncey bailey will make their case removing to

trial to los angeles. defense attorneys are claiming intense media coverage prevents their clients from getting a fair trial. we're keeping a close eye this morning on muni because of an operator sick out. >> reporter: i've spoken to a couple of different operators about the potential for a sick out. remind me me there's there yard. the buses are generally taken from the top first and the bottom second. it's a little difficult the tell if there's a sick out. it came from a flier circulating among operators earlier this month. it's not exactly scientific survey but only one of the four

operators i've been able to speak with this morning said they have seen it. the operators are protesting recent changes to a new fee for parking and changes to sick rules or calling in sick. no one has called in sick. the leaders of the union who represent 2200 operators and drivers say they don't have anything to do with the flier if it does exist. delays caused by the slow down resulted in long rides. so far no official word on what's happening here or whether

or not there's there's a flier. so far it doesn't appear that any drivers are calling in sick. time now 5:36. let's go back to sal and see how the commute going. everyone behaving out there? >> reporter: they are. things are pretty light which is just what we want to here. i want to show you that northbound 101 between oyster point. there's still a couple of lanes closed for road work. not causing a big delay. a little bit farther north in san francisco 101 still looks good all the way to downtown. if you're driving on highway 4 that also is off to a nice start. we already have a little bit of slowing on highway 4 but nothing compared to what it should be in an hour. you still have time to jump ahead of the crowd. low overcast. looks like this week will be

slightly warmer and not really by the coast. it's going to stay in the 60s there. clouds start to increase saturday. there's one forecast model that's very bull herb. the others are kind of yeah, we'll get some light rain. it does look like rain is on the way as we get toward saturday. low 50s. fair field is 52 with a southwest wind at 20. that's a little cold. a little warmer oakland airport. con cord and livemore both 52. there goes our system from yesterday. we're in between the next one right out here. that's starting to deepen.

60s, 70s and upper 70s. we'll go for a high of 62. it should be 71 this time of year. 50s again. you can see those and everybody is pretty close. 30s up in the mountains. 40s, 50s and 60s up and down the coast. high pressure comes in. it's not that strong. it's weak one but will still give us a little warm up. increasing clouds friday especially up to the north. low clouds and sunny. cool tomorrow and slightly warmer but the breeze is till there out of west. breezy at times. 50s, 60s, 70s. temperatures running below average. they will get a little warmer over the next couple of days.

wednesday and thursday there's your increasing clouds. a new clue has emerged in the investigation of the deadly education motion in san bruno. >> reporter: good morning. we're at the site of this investigation and the devastation. we are on glen view drive. most of this area is back in but this area does remained blocked off. add you can see you can't get anywhere close to that crater. it appears the investigation isn't focused there anymore. it is now headed to washington, d.c. federal investigators wrapped up their work yesterday in the crater created by this blast. three segments of 28-foot long, 30-inch natural gas line were put on a truck. the pipe is key evidence. the ntsb confirming the break happened at a point where the

pipe was curved and where they found several pieces of pipe welded together to provide for change in that direction. >> one of those welds was the clean break end of the pipe where you could see a very distinct clean break of the pipe at the welds. the other end was torn and shredded. >> reporter: while investigators search for answers so the grieving does continue. many residentses have returned to the neighborhood but residents in the regular tagged area only got a look through windows of a bus at what was left on their ohm. the coroner's office telling us they expect to release new information within the next couple of hours. we know four people have died. >> i think this is place of

comfort for them and a place where they were -- they knew their children were loved. >> reporter: you are taking a live look back at the end of glen view drive and the crater that's been left in the investigation. that area remains blocked off to everyone. police standing by to make sure no one gets too close to that area, not residentses, not press, not anybody but just the people focused on this investigation. they did do alcohol and drug tests on the pg&e workers. those came out negative. they are look at hows of documents. they are asking anyone who may have smelled gas in the week or so prior to this explosion or seen any kind of dying vegetation in that area to give them call because they believe all of those will be critical to

this ongoing investigation. the san francisco board of supervisors today will make a decision about a controversial new alcohol fee after last week's vote was postponed. that meeting was cancelled minutes after it began because the required notice of the meeting was not posted in the newspaper. under this proposed alcohol fee distributers would be charged fees on every gallon of beer, wine and hard liquor they sell. the money generated by the fees would help the city pay for health care costs related to alcohol abuse. the board of supervisors is also getting closer to expanding the city's ban on tobacco products and businesses with a pharmacy. two years ago san francisco became the first city in the country to ban the sell of tobacco products in drugstores like walgreens. yesterday a supervisor's committee approved expanding the ban to grocery stores to pharmacies like safeway and costco.

they are expected to vote on that bill next week. well, we have more on our breaking news this morning. the attorney for sarah shourd are confirming she's been released from prison. where he says she's headed now. also a bay area man murdered while on vacation in costa rica. we'll tell you what police believe may be behind what they are calling a senseless killing.

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welcome back. good morning to you. here is a quick look at some of the top stories we're following for you right now at 5:46. the attorney for sarah shourd, the american detained in iran. she confirms she's been released from an iranian prison. the attorney did not say whether the 500,000-dollar bail that iran had demanded for her release has been paid. we're also following a new development in last week's deadly explosion and fire in san bruno. federal investigators are taking a closer look at a welds of the curved section of the pipe that blew up last thursday night. later today president obama will get the second annual back to school address to american students. the uproar over that message

last year is not resurfacing this year. memorial plans are being made for a man who was shot and killed while on vacation in costa rica. he was lounging on a beach last thursday when he was shot at close range. his girlfriend said the robber stole a backpack that had sunscreen, a water bottle and beer inside. to arrests have been made. charges have been dropped against a mother whose 2-year-old daughter was found wandering the street. police say the little girl wads found barefoot and screaming about a mile from her home in june. the 23-year-old was set to go on trial this friday but prosecutors now say new information came to light that suggest the child may have been taken from the home by an

exgirlfriend of rendon's boyfriend. a judge says he can't help in his own defense because of his current mental illness. he's accused of killing a pedestrian on august 29th, 2006. he's also accused of hitting 18 people in san francisco that same day but in that case he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. prosecutors plan to try him if and when his competency is restored. take a look at this photo the police released. he went into a store shortly after 4 in the morning and demanded cash. police say he robbed two other 7-eleven stores. one in hayward. no one was hurt during the

robberies. a 2500-dollar reward is being offered in this case. a team of health workers from an oakland church have been released on bail from a sim bob zimbabwae jail. the church has been sending workers there for the past two years. they have been ordered to return to court in two weeks. the widening of the freeway is going on now. it's a few years off,

unfortunately but everyone talks about how busy highway 4 gets. it looks okay coming into san francisco. no major problems here. northbound 101 still picking up some road work. they should be gone pretty soon but there's no they to traffic. now, let's go to steve. >> reporter: cool continues. we had the drop yesterday in temperatures. the weekend warmed up, at least inland. not so much by the coast. we dropped a little warmer over the next couple of days. the big news continues to be the increasing clouds on friday. don't cancel any plans or anything. it does look like rain to the north. the system showing signs of being a little stronger. it's not a whopper of a system. don't worry about that, but it does look like a possibility of

rain. low clouds are in place today. we'll see that burn off sooner. 60, 70 to 80 today. some sun but it stays cool. look another some of these lows. nevada 77. alamo and danville 49. it's a little chilly out there this morning. 35 up in tahoe. sacramento 52. that's a little chilly there too. high pressure comes in but there's still plenty of gray. that's all fog right there. the high probably squash it a bit. turning cloudy friday and saturday. clouds will make it for everybody but the rain is the

big question. looks like it is likely in the north as we head toward saturday afternoon. the next couple of days it will be a little warmer. the coast will stay in the 60s. we'll see the fog burn off a little sooner. the wind is out of west. not that strong compared to yesterday but it's still there. 50s to low and mid-80s. fog nice and warm. there's your increasing clouds. friday does look like it clouded up. you tube is trying to go live. analysts say if it works it could makable and satellite television obsolete. you tube is owned by google. a new study shows apple iphone customers who go to the store down load twice as many programs as those who use

android app world. warren buffet is in agreement with many analysts saying the world will not fall back into another recession. he says we will not have a double dip recession. bay area firefighters find themselves right in the middle of a political fire storm. we'll tell you where the controversy surroundses their home address.

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just one in four firefighters actually live isn't the city. that can make it tough to call

them to work quickly in an emergency. new hires have to live within a reasonable distance to san jose. they have unusual tactics to capture a seven foot alligator that was hanging out around an elementary school. a crossing guard called the sheriff's office to report it. deputies lassoed and cuffed the alligator to get it off school property before students arrived. >> that's a big one. >> why i don't live in florida. there's good news for a bay area family this morning. we're following the release of sarah shourd from the iranian prison this morning. new details #guessing game about whether drivers will call in sick.